Ranbaxy wins 2 additional Atorvastatin patents

New Delhi, Aug 30: Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited (RLL) today said a Norwegian court has ruled in its favour against Pfizer, involving two patents on a cholesterol-lowering drug, Atorvastatin, in Norway.

The Oslo city court found that Ranbaxy's Atorvastatin, marketed by Pfizer as Lipitor(r), was not infringing two of Pfizer's Norwegian patents (No 177,566 and No 180,199), the drugmaker said in a statement.

This is the most important decision for Ranbaxy, as it validates Ranbaxy's position regarding the atorvastatin patents, Mr Jay Deshmukh, Senior Vice President, Global Intellectual Property for RLL said.

''We will continue to actively pursue all of our options in Norway and other markets in order to bring affordable atorvastatin to patients around the world.'' Earlier in November 2005, the Norwegian court found Ranbaxy's Atorvastatin product not infringing one of Pfizer's process patents (No 309,322) but infringing another of Pfizer's patents (No.

177,706) covering a particular intermediate compound.

Ranbaxy has already appealed to the Norwegian Court of Appeals against the negative judgment on the one remaining intermediate compound patent.

RLL is an integrated international pharmaceutical company headquartered in India. It produces a wide range of quality and affordable generic medicines.

Lipitor is the world's top-selling medicine, with annual global revenue of more than 12 billion dollars.

The company's foray into Novel Drug Delivery Systems has led to proprietary 'platform technologies', resulting in a number of products under development.

The company operates in over 125 countries and has an expanding international portfolio of affiliates, joint ventures and alliances, ground operations in 49 countries and manufacturing operations in 8 countries.

UNI